Please help us continue to provide you with free, quality journalism by turning off your ad blocker on our site.

Thank you for signing in.

If this is your first time registering, please check your inbox for more information about the benefits of your Forbes account and what you can do next!

I agree to receive occasional updates and announcements about Forbes products and services. You may opt out at any time.

I'd like to receive the Forbes Daily Dozen newsletter to get the top 12 headlines every morning.

Forbes takes privacy seriously and is committed to transparency. We will never share your email address with third parties without your permission. By signing in, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Statement.

For coal, April has once again been the cruelest month. But, politically, it may wind up rejuvenating the nation now that former Vice President Joe Biden has emerged as the front runner in the bid to be next U.S. president.

Put simply, renewables this past month surpassed coal for the first time ever when it comes to generating the nation’s electricity — a trend that will only get worse over time. And it won’t get better by pandering to economically desperate coal miners, who now fully get two years into the Trump administration that they have been duped. It will only improve by helping coal country make a fundamental shift to a new economic foundation and one that centers on modern technologies.

“Economics is driving the rapid adoption of distributed energy resources in Texas,” says Elizabeth Lippincott, executive director of the Texas Clean Energy Coalition, in an interview with this writer for Microgrid Knowledge. “The cost of these technologies is dramatically falling. We are moving away from the older less efficient coal burning plants and moving toward renewables. It is increasing customer choice” — a movement that began in the 1990s.

Texas, of course, is a red state that voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But if it recognizes the economic advantages of diversifying its electricity mix, so too can the heart of coal country: Appalachia.

Coal now provides 27% of the country’s electricity mix. But the Energy Information Agency expects coal consumption to keep falling. And while it says there has been an uptick in coal exports, the agency adds that developing nations too are working to cut their coal usage. The result? Coal employment is largely unchanged since Trump was elected and hovers around 50,000 coal producing jobs. And if one considers the hundreds of thousands of positions created in the renewable sector, they can conclude that Trump has sold coal country a bill of goods — much as he did his students at the now defunct Trump University.

Vigil light, candle with the miner belongings (helmet, gloves, pickaxe, vest, belt) after the fatal... [+] accident in the mine

Getty

The New Calculus

So how does Vice President Biden change the calculus for beleaguered coal miners in Appalachia? And how does that fit in with his commitment to reduce CO2 releases and to re-commit to the global climate pact created in Paris in 2015?

For starters, Biden has been green since the 1980s, voting at that time to craft policies to cub global warming. But his credibility on the issue picked up during the Obama presidency because he was critical to the passage to the Recovery Act of 2009 that allocated $90 billion to clean energy technologies.

At that time, skeptics of the plan called it “socialistic,” saying that it is was Washington’s attempt to prop up uneconomic tools and fuels. But history has proven them wrong, as evidenced by the latest government figures. The incentives have not just reduced the prices of those technologies — everything from wind turbines to solar panels to battery storage — but moreover, the marketplace has embraced them. Witness ruby red Texas.

Utilities, which are compelled to meet the demands of their customers, are also on board. Xcel Energy has said it will deliver carbon-free electricity by 2050 and 80% by 2030. Southern Co., also said that it has similar goals while the Northern Indiana’s Public Service Company said that it is replacing all of its coal generation with renewables by 2028 — something that will save it $4 billion over 30 years.

“Addressing climate change is the biggest challenge of this generation,” says Mauricio Gutierrez, chief executive NRG Energy, which has vowed to cut its CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and 90% by 2050. “By making significant progress across our sustainability priorities and providing our customers with solutions to achieve their goals, we’re delivering a more sustainable energy future.”

In other words, the nation is on an irreversible trend whereby the use of cleaner tools and fuels will accelerate while the older technologies will get retired. Telling someone what they want to hear is not the sign of a statesman. It is emblematic of a conman. Industrial America wanted to believe Trump when he promised to bring back their jobs. But many in the labor movement have become disillusioned. Hence the appeal of Vice President Biden, whose public service and honor are durable and deep.

Biden is not an ideologue. He is a consensus builder. To that end, his policies would not attempt to stoke the financially shafted but rather, would seek to build lasting legacies — ones that would not get tossed by the courts. While he has yet to comment on the Green New Deal that would put into high gear what the Obama-Biden administration already started, the vice president does support the proposed policy’s higher principles: the reduction of CO2 releases and the creation of 21st jobs in areas now devastated by the changing economic landscape.

If Trump represents an aging America that yearns for a yesteryear that will never return, Biden personifies the country’s promise and its investments in a 21st Century energy economy — the kind that would also lift hard hit industrial regions and inspire union workers.

Since the late 1990s, I’ve covered energy, beginning with the rise and fall of Enron — first as a magazine writer before becoming a columnist and editor. For more than

…

Since the late 1990s, I’ve covered energy, beginning with the rise and fall of Enron — first as a magazine writer before becoming a columnist and editor. For more than eight years, I’ve been a columnist for Forbes, focusing on fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear energy while expanding my coverage to include emerging technologies and environmental causes. I now cover all of those issues on a global basis, especially for the African and Asian regions. My stories have appeared in, and have been cited by, dozens of publications and broadcasts. My features and my columns have also won several national awards. Twitter: @Ken_Silverstein. Email: ken@silversteineditorial.com